Can’t imagine why: Chris Cuomo’s COVID-19 Interviews With Andrew Cuomo Are Disgraceful.
On Wednesday, CNN primetime anchor Chris Cuomo interviewed New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), for the 10th time since the coronavirus pandemic began. The TV host’s hardest-hitting question for his older brother was whether the COVID-19 testing swabs are too small for his gigantic nose.
“[The nurse told me] that I have a little button nose,” the governor countered.
It was a moment that should have embarrassed CNN, whose journalists frequently—and often justifiably—criticize other networks for lobbing softball questions at President Donald Trump. And yet Chris Cuomo’s employers have decided to let his bad family comedy routine play out night after night, as the brothers fake-argue about which one is mom’s favorite, who would win in a fight, and where the tomato sauce recipe went.
Some viewers might appreciate an occasional light-hearted break from the constant stream of grim COVID-19 news, but this is getting ridiculous. The U.S. has now suffered an estimated 95,000 COVID-19 deaths, with 22,000 in the state of New York alone. Andrew Cuomo is the governor of that state, and the decisions he made have some bearing on that number. On March 25, for instance, Cuomo ordered nursing homes to admit seniors who had tested positive for the coronavirus: a wave of deaths in senior care facilities followed that decision. Grilling him about this misstep is no less vital than grilling Trump about his handling of the crisis—a task that CNN relishes.
Even though Chris Cuomo had previously broken quarantine, as spotted by a 65-year old Long Island cyclist that Cuomo verbally attacked, CNN staged Cuomo’s emergence from his basement like it was the Resurrection: “But another current CNN employee who spoke with THR criticized Cuomo’s appearances, particularly the dramatic moment last Monday when he was filmed leaving the basement where he was quarantined to reunite with his family, as ‘reality TV.’ ‘Him coming out of the quarantine with the cameras there, that’s all Jeff Zucker reality TV, and that screams Zucker,’ the person says, referring to the network president who brought The Apprentice to NBC and helped make Trump a star.”
h/t ED